This Warriors Trade Rumor Doesn’t Add Up

This Warriors Trade Rumor Doesn’t Add Up

So the Jonathan Kaminga situation has become a nightmare for Golden State. Not only has the kid failed to become a main part of their team, he doesn’t have a contract. And until that gets done, they can’t do anything else. Sign out Horford, Dean Anthony Melton, maybe even Malcolm Brogden. But no, Steph Curry is out here with eight teammates under contract. Eight. They can’t do a thing until this Kaminga deal works out. Plus, if he does pick up this one-year qualifying offer, it could be a disaster. Not only could Golden State lose Kaminga for nothing next off seasonason, they virtually cannot trade him for an impact player this year. Terrible. But hold on. Plugged in reporter Jake Fischer says a major move could save this whole thing. The Warriors would be interested depending on the minations and some kind of Josh Giddy for Jonathan Kaminga signing trade. What do you know how amazing that would be? Not only do they solve the Kaminga disaster, Kaminga could be a perfect fit. They get another high IQ passer. Giddy’s got elite vision at 6 foot8. Plus, they use his rebounding and grab and go to play faster in transition. Oh, and if he continues to improve his shooting, it would be a match made in heaven. But there is one major problem with all of this. What if I told you this Giddy Kaminga rumor isn’t just fake, it was planted on purpose. And the wild part, the people behind it don’t even want to trade. But that doesn’t apply to the Bulls with Kaminga because they love this kid. Reports say that Chicago reached out to Golden State early this summer about a JK trade got shut down. In fact, the Bulls are going to have cap space next summer and if Kaminga bets on himself, the Bulls might be the number one team to give him a payday. And it’s also not from the Warriors side because they love Josh Giddy. Fiser also reported that on draft night 2021, the Dubs had Giddy penciled in at 7, but OKC shockingly swooped in and picked him early. They had to settle for Jonathan Kaminga. So, where is this coming from? And why is it fake? Well, Jonathan Kaminga has a ton of talent, but he just never fit into Steve Kerr’s system. Because he doesn’t shoot, it’s really hard to play with both Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler on the floor. But I completely understand why he is upset. JK wants to spread his wings as an NBA player, but Steve Kerr keeps him caged up. So yeah, it’s gotten toxic at times. But now that hate has boiled over because the Warriors offered Kaminga a 2-year $45 million deal to find a new team. But he said no. Kaminga wants at least 30 million a year. But if he gives Golden State this short deal, they control where he ends up. No. Dude is willing to take that one-year qualifying offer at just 8 million and risk injury to control his destiny. But before this rumor, Josh Giddy’s situation is different. He was drafted one spot before Kaminga in 2021 as let’s be honest, a rare miss by the Thunder. He struggled to shoot which made it easier for teams to defend OKC. So they traded him for Alex Caruso and immediately won a championship. The Bulls got slammed for this trade. especially to start the season. Giddy averaged 12 points a game on 45% shooting before All-Star, but the turning point was the Zack Lavine trade. Once they traded him, Giddy had a lot more of an onball role, plus key injuries. So, he dominated down the stretch. Final 19 games, 21 points a night, 11 boards and nine dimes on 43% from deep. in March almost a quadruple double against the Lakers 1510 17 and eight steals became the third bull ever with 1k points 500 boards 500 assists in a season and the other two of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen so yeah the Bulls want to keep him but the problem has been his demand at $30 million per year pretty expensive for a guy who really only dominated for 19 games so Chicago has only offered 20 million so right now JK K and Giddy are two of the four major restricted guys on hold. That’s Kaminga Giddy plus Quinton Grimes in Philly and Nets Cam Thomas. And you can see the difference here between what the player wants and what the team has offered. And then over there you have the qualifying offer. So if these guys pick up this low one-year deal, it lets them then become an unrestricted free agent next year and choose their destiny. the ultimate bet on yourself move with risk because if they get injured or have a down year, they just passed up on lifechanging money. But having four players in this situation is rare. Normally, we only have like one or two restricted free agents this late in the summer. Why? Because of the new CBA. See, teams are so afraid of this second apron, they will lowball guys who want more, and they’re not giving up. So right now the Warriors and Bulls will not budge on Jonathan Gaminga and Josh Giddy which created this rumor. See Brett Seagull of Clutch Point says, “Yeah, the two teams have held conversations this off season, but talks were more so centered around Kaminga and potential interest Chicago held.” Sources said at no point did the Bulls signal that Giddy was available, nor did the Dubs even try to put together a package for him. So what is this rumor all about? Did it come from nowhere? No, it came from Josh Giddy’s agent. Rumors like these are leaked all the time to try to create leverage for the player. In this case, Giddy. They want the rumor out there to try to squeeze every single dollar possible for Josh Giddy from the Bulls cuz they might think, “Oh, he wants to go to Golden State.” But even the trade itself is unrealistic. There is an NBA rule called base compensation which basically says in a signin trade like this only 50% of Kaminga salary for example would count coming off Golden State’s books but 100% of Giddy’s salary would count going in which makes it virtually impossible. So let’s actually spell it out with numbers. Both guys signed for let’s say 30 million bucks. Well both teams would be trading out 15 million and getting back 30 which does not work financially. And if you didn’t understand that, no problem. Just know to pull this off, it would have to be a three, maybe four team deal this late in the offseason, which makes an already unlikely trade even less likely. So, what is going to happen here? Well, I think out of the four restricted free agents, Josh Giddy is by far the most likely to stay with his old team. He loves Chicago and his role. Plus, the Bulls are super motivated to get this done. They got so much hate on the giddy trade, especially after Alice Russo signed a new $80 million deal and won a ring in OKC. They don’t want to be embarrassed if the Giddy thing blows up. But Kaminga is the least likely to sign a new deal. Why? Because this kid is hellbent on taking control of his own career. He would rather risk tens of millions than have the Golden State Warriors determine his future. And yeah, the Bulls would be a great fit for him. I mean, they need a two-way wing like that who doesn’t need the ball all the time. a cutting finisher who’d be great with Kobe White’s passing or whoever plays point guard. But unfortunately for JK, he ain’t going there yet because this rumor is fake. But the bigger picture in all of this is while the drama drags out, Steph Curry is sitting there with maybe two good runs left in his career and one of them could get wasted. Right now the Warriors have nine players under contract and the roster isn’t just incomplete. It’s frozen. And the longer it stays like that, the harder it is to compete in the West. Do you know how much of a disaster it would be if Al Horford Anthony Melton were like, “Yo, we have just waited way too long for you to figure that out, so we’re going somewhere else.” Cuz we have seen this movie before. Star player in the twilight of his prime, front office gets stuck negotiating with one guy while the rest of the league moves on. And if those other role players sign elsewhere, you don’t get a second chance. This is why the Kaminga situation is bigger than just keep him or trade him. It’s about whether the Warriors are still all in on winning with Steph or if they’re slipping into the post Curry era without even admitting it. But the Lakers are all in on the Luca Dotic era. The newest Laker has taken control of their franchise just 6 months in. And that obviously has pissed off LeBron James. But what is their plan exactly to build around Luca?

The Warriors are facing a big problem with Jonathan Kuminga’s future but a new report says trading for Josh Giddey could be an option. This would solve a lot of problems for Golden State but something is very off about this latest rumor.